Ezo set the journal on the table and rubbed his eyes. He wasn’t sure how long he’d been reading. It wasn’t unheard of for him to lock himself in a room with a book in his younger days, but exhaustion crept through his limbs tonight.

He wanted to learn so much, but Jacob hadn’t written these to his nephew. They were just the notes and theories of a man recording his thoughts.

“Ezo, it’s time to set it down,” Kammon said as he sat across the table from Ezo. “Leave it for the morning.”

“I just want to understand.”

“You can’t read it all in one night.” Kammon stood and offered his hand to Ezo.

He thought about ignoring it, but the other elementalist was right. “Fine,” he said, placing the leather ribbon to save his place. “Where is Remec?”

“He fell asleep hours ago. He’s smarter than us,” Kammon said with a grin.

“Good thing. We’d probably have starved if he hadn’t cooked.”

Kammon pulled Ezo out of Mountainkeep’s library and out into the hallway. He took them into the first of the two bedrooms. “How did Remec get this cleaned out today as well?” Ezo asked.

“He didn’t. I stopped reading a while ago to make sure we had a place to sleep. Remec doesn’t seem to mind sleeping in the dust since I found him asleep on the floor by the journals, but if I have a bed, I plan to put it to use. After I sent him out, I came back to read a little more. We have all the time we need to do this, though. No use exhausting yourself the first night.”

“I’m only reading.”

“Ezo, I can see the tension in your shoulders from across the room.”

Ezo couldn’t argue with that, as much as he wanted to. Besides, there was a very nice-looking bed sitting opposite the door and the fireplace had been lit long enough to warm the room nicely. His bag had been brought in and his jacket was hanging on a nail by the door, next to Kammon’s.

It made him ache in ways he hadn’t before. What would life be like for him if he stayed in one place? If Kammon were willing to be with him and leave the troubles of the world behind them?

Kammon unbuttoned Ezo's shirt and smoothed it off his shoulders, dropping it into a chair by the fire before he pushed Ezo toward the bed.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“I can do that myself,” he muttered.

“Shut up and lie down.”

He would have argued, but he was tired and as soon as he was flat, Kammon came over and massaged his shoulders. His hands were calloused, and his thumbs dug into knots that were almost painful, but Ezo relaxed more and more into his ministrations.

His eyes grew heavy as Kammon’s hands became more gentle. He was barely awake when Kammon stripped him of the rest of his clothes. He raised his head from his arms as he heard the rustle of fabric and watched as Kammon stripped his shirt off.

Firelight danced over Kammon’s muscular back and it seemed to shine on the scars that dotted his skin. Kammon had shared the story of a few of them, but he didn’t like to talk about all of it. Some were from his time as a War-Sworn, but Ezo knew others were older, from his days on the streets.

“Come to bed,” he slurred.

Kammon turned and smiled at him. “I thought you were asleep.”

“I am. So come to bed.”

Kammon finished undressing and then slid under the covers. If Ezo wasn’t so tired, he’d have plenty of ideas on how to spend the night in the very soft bed. As it was, when Kammon rested on his back, Ezo curled up against him and let out a deep sigh.

Kammon ran his hair through Ezo’s long hair and it relaxed Ezo even further. “Could spend a lifetime reading here and never finish these books,” he whispered.

Kammon nodded against his forehead. “What about Riverkeep?”

“Not as big, but the books are more densely packed. I wasn’t there long before I left to find you.”

“How did you find it if the cavern was hidden like this was?”

Ezo thought back to his days at Riverkeep and Kaiya. “There was a woman. I think she was a servant in the castle before it burned.”

“It burned?”

“Didn’t I tell you? I found it at the Fire Born Castle.”

Kammon tensed under him and Ezo looked up. “Kammon?”

“I didn’t think anyone went there anymore. They say it's haunted.”

“Creepy, maybe, but not haunted. This woman showed up when I was going through one of the rooms. I didn’t expect to find anything. The place … someone ripped through it with fire hot enough to melt the stones. For some reason, one room had been spared most of it.”

Kammon rubbed at his forehead, and Ezo reached up and touched Kammon’s face. His lover looked at him and gave him a soft smile. “It’s nothing. The day is taking its toll on me, too.”

“We should sleep then.”

“Tell me what happened first.”

“The woman showed me the secret to opening up a secret passage behind the fireplace,” Ezo said. “There was a long tunnel and a lock like we saw on the door here.”

“What happened to the woman?”

“She left, and I didn’t see her again,” Ezo said. “I don’t know if she was waiting for someone to share the secret with, or if that was just her way.”

“She’s lucky she found someone with the power to open it.”

Ezo nodded as he ran his fingers in circles over the arm that Kammon wasn’t using to play with his hair. His lover’s motions slow and Ezo smiled to himself that he knew how to calm Kammon, even if he would never admit it.

When Ezo looked up, he saw the small lines of pain that marred his lover’s sleeping face. He decided they’d both be better off for sleeping late in the morning. Or staying in bed.

Both if he could convince his lover.